Poverty Alleviation and Development in Jiangsu Province

　　【Overview】In accordance with the decision of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Government for key problem tackling in poverty reduction, the objective of key problem tackling for poverty alleviation in Jiangsu in 2010 was to lift 1 million or more rural poor out of poverty; consolidate the results of poverty relief and prevent poverty returning; ensure that 500 of the 1011 economically weak villages identified by the provincial government will complete the task of key problem tackling in poverty reduction, including 208 in 2010; organize labor transfer trainings for 100,000 rural poor and further expand the size of anti-poverty microcredit to benefit more rural poor. In order to achieve the goal, government at all levels and various departments earnestly performed their duties, increased investment in poverty reduction, innovated mechanisms, implemented various measures and made remarkable achievements in key problem tackling. The Provincial Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation organized the Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, Provincial Department of Finance, Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, Provincial Bureau of Statistics and Jiangsu Investigation Team of National Bureau of Statistics to conduct sample survey, listen to reports and carry out investigations into villages and telephone inquiry for acceptance checks, and discovered that in 2010, the province lifted a total of 1.2383 million rural poor out of poverty, overfulfiled the scheduled task of lifting 1 million rural poor out of poverty. Over the three years since the implementation of key problem tackling projects, a total of 2.6238 million people have shaken off poverty, accounting for 80.6% of the total poor. The village-level collective economic revenue of the vast majority of the 1011 economically weak villages reached 50,000 Yuan and 312 villages achieved the goal of poverty reduction through key problem tackling in 2010. Over the three years, a total of 604 villages have basically achieved the goal of tackling key problems in poverty alleviation, accounting for 59.7% of the total, and some villages have become local models in new rural construction.

　　【Financial awards and subsidies】 In 2010, Jiangsu Province issued a total of 1.85 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds to implement the pro-poor measures for 350,000 rural poor households. To ensure the efficiency of the funds, the provincial government specially formulated the "Measures on the Management of Financial Awards and Subsidies for Key Problem Tackling in Poverty Reduction" to improve the accuracy of the investment, cover more rural poor and enhance the return on investment and the capital efficiency. All cities and counties also increased financial investment. The provincial government gave instruction that local agriculture-related funds must give priority to economically weak regions to benefit economically weak villages and poor rural households.

　　【Issuance of small anti-poverty loans】　Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Government decided to increase microcredit amount for poverty reduction since 2008 to meet the production needs of poor rural households. Over the past three years, a total of 4.188 billion Yuan of petty loans was issued for poverty relief, of which 2.168 billion Yuan was issued in 2010, 1.7 times that of the previous year. The amount of loans has been increased and more rural households benefited from microcredit. 

　　【Training of poor labors】In 2008, 2009 and 2010, Jiangsu Province arranged financial funds of 50 million Yuan for training of 100,000 poor labors from the northern areas of the province per year. The subsidies were all issued in the form of “training coupons”. In the three years, a total of 346,700 poor rural labors attended the trainings, including 122,700 in 2010, and 118,000 of them achieved transfer of employment, accounting for 96.2% of the total.

　　【Fixed-point poverty alleviation】In 2010, in accordance with the requirements of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Government, still giving priority to the 11 counties (districts) including Feng County and Suining as the key counties for problem tackling in poverty reduction, the provincial party committee sent poverty relief work teams to provide assistance in the poverty reduction in these counties. 189 cadres from the provincial organs, colleges, universities, large enterprises and the counties (cities and districts) in the southern area of the province were selected to form 11 poverty relief work teams to support the poverty alleviation in the key counties. 11 department-level cadres acted as the team leaders and 11 division-level cadres acted as the vice team leaders. All the team members went to act as village’s political instructors and stayed in the villages to carry out fixed-point poverty alleviation. The cities, counties (cities, districts) in the northern area of Jiangsu also sent more than 1000 cadres to support the poverty alleviation in the village.

　　【Pro-poor measures】 First, adhere to the objective of speeding up the income growth of rural poor households and the development of economically weak villages, striving to increase income of farmers. The government strived to increase the income of farmers and lift them out of poverty through industrial projects and the assistance from capable people and cooperative organizations, through employment trainings and assistance of industrial and commercial enterprises and university student village cadres, etc. According to the requirements for the construction of economically weak villages, it highlighted the key work of developing collective economy and, constantly strengthened the collective economic power of poor villages through liquidizing remnant assets, land consolidation, development village-level property and providing paid services. Meanwhile, to improve the environment of impoverished villages, the province made scientific planning and strived for support to accelerate the construction of production and living facilities in rural areas and enhance the service function of village-level service centers to create conditions and provide convenient for the development of poor villages and rural households.

　　Secondly, adhere to the two-wheel-drive mechanism of labor skills training and industrialization. Taking income growth by employment as an effective way to lift rural residents out of poverty, the province strived to enhance the capability of poor labors for production and employment through school-enterprise union, order trainings and job trainings, increased employments to transfer the labors from “zero-employment families”, set up special funds and increased public welfare positions to ensure stable employments. Through industrialization, the province vigorously developed efficient agriculture and featured industries, expanded the broker team and enhanced the degree of farmers’ organization to constantly expand the scale of industrialization operation and help more rural poor people to shake off poverty and get rich through entrepreneurship.

　　Thirdly, pay equal attention to external support and endogenous development. As important part of the activity of learning and practicing scientific outlook on development, the implementation of key problem tackling in poverty reduction was listed among the practical projects in the new round of rural construction and promoted vigorously through pro-poor measures such as improving social security, strengthening village-level transfer payment, practicing the system of one meeting for one issue, issuing financial awards and subsidies and addressing the public welfare debts of economically weak villages. The Provincial People's Congress and CPPCC leadership conducted many investigations into the economically weak regions and gave instructions on the work of key problem tackling. The party committees and governments of the cities and counties in the northern area attached high importance to the work and the key counties’ party committee secretaries and heads were the first to undertake the responsibility. They made a lot of propaganda, seriously implemented the program and promoted the construction of the “two strong” village-level leading groups to mobilize the enthusiasm of the cadres and masses to shake off poverty, which effectively accelerated the pace of addressing key problems in poverty reduction. The poverty relief working teams at all levels worked together with the grassroots cadres and masses on the front line and did a great deal of work to support local development. Various units conscientiously performed their duties and deepened the content of poverty reduction, which greatly supported the development of economically weak regions and helped the poor to shake off poverty.

　　Fourthly, simultaneously promote the implementation of "relief" policy and relief type poverty alleviation. Development-oriented poverty reduction for poor households with the ability to work and relief type poverty reduction for those without the ability to work are the basic requirements put forward by the provincial government for key problem tackling in poverty alleviation. According to the classified records of registered poor, with county (city, district) as the unit, based on local rural per capita net income of the previous year and the requirements for timing sequence, the province determined the standards for the minimum living security through inverted method and established the mechanism for annual growth. For the new rural cooperative medical funds, funding through one meeting for one issue, water charge for irrigation projects, electrical and mechanical operation costs and agricultural insurance fees that should be paid by the registered poor rural households, the government issued the relief policy to effectively reduced the burden on rural poor. Meanwhile, the province simultaneously promoted the implementation of "relief" policy and relief type poverty alleviation to accelerate the smooth construction of key problem tackling projects in poverty reduction.

　　【Poverty reduction program】The “12th Five-Year Plan” period is a crucial period for Jiangsu Province to build a moderately prosperous society and basically realize modernization ahead of time. According to the spirit of the fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Party Committee, the 9th Plenary Session of the 11th Party Committee proposed to take the strategic development of urbanization as the strategy for the integrated development of urban and rural areas and improve the common development strategy for various regions as strategy for coordinated development between regions, and decided to launch the program for residents’ income to double in 7 years. The overall requirements for the poverty alleviation and development work in Jiangsu Province in the "12th Five-Year Plan" period: Thoroughly implement the scientific concept of development, based on the situation of "three rural" work in Jiangsu Province, adhere to the top priority of speeding up the development of economically weak regions and promoting the income growth of low-income rural households, adhere to the effective linkage of poverty alleviation and rural minimum living security system, adhere to combining government leadership with social assistance and self-reliance, attach more importance to the improvement of the overall quality of poor people and the enhancement of their self-development capacity, pay more attention to the transformation of development model of economically weak regions and the improvement of the capacity of these regions for sustainable development, and comprehensively enhance the level of poverty alleviation and development to ensure the income growth rate of low-income population higher than that of rural per capita net income of Jiangsu Province.

　　Objectives in the “12th Five-Year Plan” period: Lift all the rural poor with per capita net income less than 2500 Yuan out of poverty, basically complete the key problem tackling for poverty reduction in the 1011 provincial economically weak villages and increase village collective income to at least 50,000 Yuan in 2011. From 2012 to 2015, based on a certain proportion of low-income rural residents or farmers living below rural per capita net income level, it will develop a new poverty line, re-identify economically weak villages and mobilize all social forces to participate in the implementation of anti-poverty projects to lift people out of poverty and build a moderately prosperous society.

　　Main work: 1. Establish a long-term mechanism for income growth of the poor. Taking the strategic opportunity for urban-rural integration in development, increase efforts on village development and enriching people and accelerate the construction of an income structure with family operating income as the basis and wage income and property income as the core and with a growing proportion of transfer income so as to increase sources of income growth.

2. Establish a mechanism to accelerate the development of village-level collective economy. Adhering to policy incentives, model guidance and poverty reduction advocacy, vigorously develop the resource development-oriented, asset management-oriented, farmer service-oriented, off-site development-oriented and leisure and tourism-oriented village-level collective economies. Continue to establish the village-level “four possessions and one responsibility” system featured stable collective revenue, well-equipped activity center, advanced practical information network, “two strong” leaders and powerful party leadership. Attach great importance to the development of university graduate village cadres and encourage them to actively participate in poverty alleviation and development.

3. Establish a mechanism for poverty reduction and endogenous development. Actively guide the masses in economically weak regions to carry forward the spirit of self-reliance and hard work to enhance their confidence and determination for accelerating development by themselves and take the good opportunity of poverty relief by all parties to shake off poverty. Continue to issue result-oriented financial awards and relief policy to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of local regions for shaking off poverty themselves.

4. Establish the mechanism for poverty alleviation by social forces. Further improve the "five-party linked" support mechanism system for the linkage of provincial organs, colleges and universities, large enterprises, the counties (cities, districts) in the southern areas of Jiangsu and the counties in the northern areas, improve the village support mechanism featured “one poverty relief instructor in village, one science and technology correspondent for instruction, one business for support, one rich village for counterpart assistance and one leading industry for helping the poor”, and increase financial, technical, personnel and project investment to make them closely cooperate with each other in anti-poverty work. Strengthen trainings of poor labors, increase anti-poverty petty loans, promote the development of economically weak villages and strengthen rural social security and other related policy measures to make more poor rural households benefit from the pro-poor policy.